St Vincent’s and Ballymun Kickhams clash in the first of two Dublin SFC semi-finals on Wednesday night at Parnell Park (7.30pm) before the meeting of St Jude’s and Castleknock takes places on Thursday evening.

Jude’s and Ballymun are odds-on favourites with the bookies to progress to Saturday week’s final, while the latter are outright favourites to repeat their 2012 win and emerge as eventual champions.

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Dublin Live looks at four factors that could have a bearing on the last-four clashes following each of the sides’ respective quarter-final wins last week…

1) Boys in Blue: Ballymun hammered Raheny in the last eight, with Dublin stars Dean Rock and John Small contributing hugely to their 18-point win. Rock kicked nine points, including eight frees, while Small was commanding from defence.

In contrast, Vincent’s main man Diarmuid Connolly was unusually subdued during their hard-fought victory over Lucan Sarsfields before he kicked a late vital point to see out the win.

Both sides will be hoping that their big names will perform in Wednesday night’s semi-final.

2) Pressure: Vincent’s entered last week’s quarter-final tie against Lucan as unbackable 1/20 favourites before struggling to grind out a three-point win.

While expectation has never tended to upset the Marino men, their indifferent performance has led to a shift in the bookies odds and Ballymun are now favourites to not only win tomorrow but the bookies also fancy them to go on and win the final. Having failed to defeat Vincent’s in their three most recent championship battles, it will be interesting to see whether Kickhams can live up to their favourites’ tag.

3) Missing men: All four sides left standing are highly reliant on certain players and their availability could have a big influence on proceedings over the next few nights.

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James McCarthy’s groin problem ruled him out of Ballymun’s quarter-final win over Raheny and manager Paddy Carr has claimed he “would be more hopeful that confident” that McCarthy will play against Vincent’s.

Meanwhile, Jude’s came through a bruising encounter in their impressive last-eight victory over a fancied Kilmacud Crokes outfit, while centre-forward Ross O’Brien picked up a red card, so manager Pádraic Monaghan will have been carefully attempting to handle his players to make sure they’re in good shape for Thursday’s clash with Castleknock.

4) Living up to the occasion: Thursday’s semi-final marks Castleknock’s first appearance at this stage of the competition since the club was founded in 1998. While the young club has experienced success through various age grades, this will be a major test for them at senior level and they will hope to put it up to a Jude’s side that came storming out of the blocks in their win over Crokes.